It was a weekend for the little guys, it turns out. Graham Rahal in the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda machine took both race wins in Detroit. The first Detroit doubleheader winner ever, and the first doubleheader winner, since Scott Dixon in 2013.
Twitter: Congrats to @GrahamRahal, @RLLRacing, and @HondaRacing_HPD on the @DetroitGP weekend sweep! #INDYCAR #DetroitGP https://t.co/7OrQHpnvvN (@IndyCar)
Rahal would start P3, behind an all-Andretti Autosport front row. Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato grabbed pole with a new lap record (01m13.6732s), while Ryan Hunter-Reay slotted in behind in P2. Unlike on Saturday, when Rahal drove away at the green flag after being on pole, the Ohio-native settled in behind Sato after dispatching Hunter-Reay for P2 on lap 10. The 28-year-old wouldn’t take the lead until Sato pitted on lap 23.
The RLL Racing driver would yield the lead to race rival Josef Newgarden two laps later during his own pit stop. Newgarden and Rahal would swap pit stop leads until the second round of pit stops, when Rahal took over for good on lap 50. During the next 15 laps, the gap between Rahal and Newgarden was 14.8 seconds. A second a lap, which Newgarden was setting as Rahal started to to hit traffic.
With 10 laps to go, Rahal encountered Hunter-Reay, running at the back after his race was compromised after contact with Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves. With no blue flag rule in the IndyCar Series, Rahal desperately tried to overtake Hunter-Reay with Newgarden closing in fast. Hunter-Reay was fighting for track position though, since being lapped by Rahal would mean going a lap down. Eventually the 36-year-old let Rahal pass under braking on the outside with eight laps to go.
That’s when everything went off. With five laps to go, James Hinchcliffe’s Honda lost power on the main straight bringing out the race’s first Full Course Yellow. As the pace car gathered the field, Spencer Pigot’s Chevy turbocharger blew causing a dense cloud of smoke. Race officials waved the red flag to halt the race—at this point on lap 67 of 70—recover the two cars and clear the track for a three lap sprint race to the finish.
Under IndyCar Series rules, lapped cars were moved to the back of the grid under a red flag restart, a head-to-head race to finish was envisioned by race officials between leader Rahal and Newgarden in P2.
Twitter: GREEN FLAG! Who’s going to get the #DetroitGP win? #INDYCAR https://t.co/1I2Xejdij6 https://t.co/j2iTzV3Qte (@IndyCar)
It wasn’t meant to be. On the restart Rahal cruised away while it seemed Newgarden was struggling on cold tyres. Rahal took a comfortable 1.1s margin for the win and a Detroit race sweep.
Detroit Grand Prix Race 2 Race Notes:
– With victories in Detroit, it is the second time in Rahal’s IndyCar career that he’s won twice in a season. The last time was 2015, at Fontana and Mid-Ohio.
– Rahal led 41 of the race’s 70 laps.
– Only 14 cars finished on the lead lap.
– Esteban Gutierrez would started P19 was the furthest back on lead lap finishers, 13.1s behind in P14.
– Ed Jones stopped in the run-off area on lap 60, but because he was facing race direction, the yellow stayed a local yellow.
– Until Jones’ stoppage, there were no cautions despite several punctures and broken front wings.
